[11855] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Boycott C&S
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vadim Antonov)
Fri Apr 22 03:44:09 1994
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 00:41:47 -0400
From: Vadim Antonov <avg@sprint.net>
To: com-priv@psi.com
This is a follow-up to the thread originated in alt.visa.us:
In <moeCoKKGt.DLs@netcom.com>, Morris Bisted (moe@netcom.com) wrote:
: There seems to be no consensus on where it was appropriate
: to post. Some people say post in:
: 1) alt.visa.*
: 2) alt.visa.* and soc.culture.(country)
: 3) alt.visa.* and soc.culture.(country) and relcom.*
Generally speaking, posing advertisements to alt. and soc. groups
is not acceptable because it amounts to unsolicited advertisement
*paid by adressees*. It is true that relcom.* has commercial newsgroups
where advertisements are explicitly allowed (relcom.commerce.*) but
the chapters of all other relcom.* newsgroups strongly prohibit any
kind of advertisements; moreover Relcom service providers include
adherence to newsgroup chapters into terms of contracts (so consistent
failure to conform to newsgroup chapters is sufficient condition for
unilateral termination of contract). Also, _all_ relcom.* newsgroups'
chapters express inappropriateness of posings in languages other than
Russian (the same way as posting in a language other than English will
be presumed not polite in most USENET newsgroups).
The real solution to the problem is to have all service providers to
include appropriate usage clause in service contracts *and* create
a separate hierarchy (actually, there *is* one: biz.*) for advertisements.
Relcom did that years ago and now "controlled" self-classified
advertisements are a *major* source of income for NSPs while non-commercial
newsgroups are reasonably free from ads (as always there is a number
of people with no clue but they stop doing that or get disconnected
accordingly to the service contracts). People who are *interested*
in services of some kind will read the appropriate newsgroup for
advertisements. This works to everybody's benefit (vendors have a
place to advertise and *interested* audience, participants of general
discussions aren't disturbed by ads and don't have to pay for them,
network service providers enjoy increased revenue because there
definitely is a class of customers who are interested in ads _only_;
finally, promoting Internet services drives individual access costs
down because of economy of scale.)
If you're interested in *how* USENET can be used commercially
look in relcom.commerce.* -- you can find sellers of items from
used LPs to SU-27s there, plus quotes of central exchanges and
info on deals in trading houses. In Russia USENET already became
a major force in economical development (never mind that Yeltsin's
office had Internet e-mail two years before Clinton's :-)
--vadim
DISCLAIMER The statement(s) above represent my personal opinion(s) ONLY
and in no way should be interpreted as position(s) of
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is NOT intended to be an offical statement or presentation
by Sprint and/or any other organization.
